"O no," insinuated one of the girls, "there's Boston."

"Why, yes," cried Dick, "to be sure there is. The President hasn't
abolished Boston. Live for Boston."

And the doctor did live for an ideal Boston, thereafter, so far at least
as concerned a never-relinquished, never-fulfilled purpose of some day
making a journey to Boston. But in the mean time there were other
things; and at present, since the Proclamation had given him a country
worth living in, he was ready to honor her by studying her antiquities.
In his youth, before his mind had been turned so strenuously to the
consideration of slavery, he had a pretty taste for the mystery of the
Mound Builders, and each of his boys now returned to camp with
instructions to note any phenomena that would throw light upon this
interesting subject. They would have abundant leisure for research,
since the Proclamation, Dr. Ellison insisted, practically ended the war.

The Mound Builders were only a starting-point for the doctor. He
advanced from them to historical times in due course, and it happened
that when Colonel Ellison and his wife stopped off at Eriecreek on their
way East, in 1870, they found him deep in the history of the Old French
War. As yet the colonel had not intended to take the Canadian route
eastward, and he escaped without the charges which he must otherwise
have received to look up the points of interest at Montreal and Quebec
connected with that ancient struggle. He and his wife carried Kitty with
them to see Niagara (which she had never seen because it was so near);
but no sooner had Dr. Ellison got the despatch announcing that they
would take Kitty on with them down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, and bring
her home by way of Boston, than he sat down and wrote her a letter of
the most comprehensive character. As far as concerned Canada his mind